Yankees Blast Away Cubs

Here's my recap of today's game for Baseball Digest.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Chi Cubs	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0		1	8	2
NY Yankees	0	1	4	3	0	0	0	2	x		10	11	0

It remains to be seen whether it was the wind or if the new Yankee Stadium is a band box. Whatever the reason, the Yankees hit four home runs this afternoon and completed a two game exhibition sweep of the Chicago Cubs, 10-1.

One day after belting three home runs off of Ted Lilly, the Yankees got a pair of blasts from Mark Teixeira, and one home run each from Derek Jeter and Shelley Duncan. All but Duncan's came off of Cubs starter Rich Harden. The Bombers scored 17 runs in the two games, on 24 hits, in winning their 23rd and 24th games of the Grapefruit League. It's the most victories for the Yankees in the exhibition season since 1962.

Today wasn't just about hitting though. Andy Pettitte scattered six hits over four innings, allowing just a solo home run by Alfonso Soriano. A.J. Burnett relieved him and was dominant, retiring the first nine men he faced before leaving the bases loaded in his fourth and final shut out innings. He finished with six strikeouts before turning things over to Brian Bruney and Phil Coke to close things out.

In addition to causing havoc on pop ups, the wind seemed to help Jeter's 3-run shot that landed in the right-center field bleachers to give the Yankees a 4-1 lead in the third inning. Two batters later Teixeira crushed a Harden delivery deep into the seats in right-center to put the Yankees up 5-1. One inning later, Teixeira repeated his feat, this time with Jeter and Johnny Damon aboard, to break the game open.

The Yankees will travel to Baltimore on Sunday and begin the "real season" on Monday against the Orioles.